Hey everyone, there's a new opinion piece in today's newspaper by yours truly, as well as several mentions/letters to the editor regarding me.

First up we have my opinion piece for the week, which deals with protestors and how idiotic I believe them to be. Read it at either the Daily 49er\'s website or at my website .

Next up is an opinion column in defense of the student-body presidential candidate I blasted a few weeks ago, and the column makes mention of me. Read it at the Daily 49er\'s website .

Following that piece of delectable delight is a letter to the editor from a guy who thinks that the Daily 49er is biased, and he partially blames me for that bias. Read it at the Daily 49er\'s website .

Finally comes one of the funniest letters to the editor ever received about me. It is from a guy who clearly disagrees with me, but he does it in a very sarcastic and clever way, so I've got to give him some credit there. It made me laugh, and I'm sure it will make you laugh too. Read it at the Daily 49er\'s website .

Until next time, people!

Hey everyone, it has been an eventful week so far, to say the least. The good news for you, though, is that you are about to read one of my best opinion pieces ever.

A few weeks ago, the Daily 49er published a letter that libeled me, and while the aftermath is not yet completely over yet (the newspaper has still not retracted the letter to my satisfaction; instead they ran a weak "correction" in Tuesday's newspaper which repeated the same libel, which is a huge "no-no" in journalism), I did have a chance to clear my name in my weekly column. Like I said, it might be one of my best pieces yet. Read it at either the Daily 49er\'s website or at my website .

Additionally, there is a piece that ran last week by another column writer who mentioned me and one of my articles in the first paragraph of his story. Sometimes it seems that there would be nothing for opinion writers to write about were it not for me. Read it at the Daily 49er\'s website .

Usually I don't hype an article a week in advance, but for the one that will be coming next Tuesday I have to. It will be BIG, and as always, I will notify you as soon as it is published. Take care, and until next time.

Hey everyone, I hope all is well.

As promised last week, I now bring to you an explosive piece that you need to read. This week's piece deals with the Muslim Student Association, a group I have written about before, but now they have actually gone and tried to suppress First Amendment rights! I could not believe when I heard of such blatant arrogance and disrespect as that demonstrated by the Muslim Student Association at a rally that they recently held. Read it at either the Daily 49er\'s website or at my website .

Until next week's article, which I guarantee will be another crowd-pleaser!

Hey everyone, I'm going to cut right to the chase this week.

This week's article by me is a piece that I have been waiting to write for two years, but because of newsroom politics I wasn't able to do until now. It deals with a convicted torturer that teaches at my school, and is, incidentally, the creator of Kwanzaa. You do not want to miss this piece! Read it at either the Daily 49er\'s website or at my website .

Until next time!

Well folks, we're in the home stretch here. This is one of my last opinion articles for the school year, as well as for the Daily 49er, as I am actually graduating this semester. There will definitely be one more opinion article by me this semester, possibly two, but this one tackled some issues I've really been wanting to say.

For this week, I decided to talk a bit about the increasing militant attitudes of campus clubs. Recently there has been a rise in this kind of political and social expression here on campus, and I think I made some very valid and logical points (of course, when do I not?). Read it at either the Daily 49er\'s website or at my website .

As I said, this is not the last opinion piece by me, but it is getting there. We still have a finals issue for next week where we may do one of the following two things: put all new articles in, or do a "Best Of" type thing, where we reprint the best-of-the-best of the 2004-2005 school year. At Journalism Day this year, I defended my title of "Best Columnist" for the Daily 49er for the second year in a row, so if we do the latter of the two aforementioned choices, you can be sure that one of my best pieces from this semester will be included. For the graduation issue in two weeks, there will be a special farewell column from me, so look out for that. As always, you will be the first to know when these are out, so keep your eyes peeled. Until then, however, take care.

Hey everyone, on Wednesday you will be receiving in your mailbox my final opinion piece, which is a humdinger to say the least. In the meantime, however, I'd just like to tell you what was in last week's Daily 49er. Last week we did a "Best Of" thing where we reprinted the best articles from the prior year, in a "Year In Review" issue.
Check out the introduction from the editor-in-chief that mentions me at the Daily 49er\'s website .
Although they weren't posted on the Daily 49er's website, the issue featured two of my articles: one opinion piece and a video game review. Their titles, respectively, were "And then on the eighth day, God said 'Chill'" (from February 8, 2005) and "'San Andreas' may be the next best thing to sex" (from November 3, 2004). Read the opinion piece at either the Daily 49er\'s website or at my website . Read the video game review at either the Daily 49er\'s website or at my website .

On Wednesday, you will be treated to my final opinion piece for the Daily 49er (unless, of course, I go to graduate school sometime in the future, which I am considering)...anyway, keep your eyes open for this Wednesday's update, and thanks!

Well, everyone, the time has come. A journey that has taken five years will come to a close tomorrow at 9:00 a.m., when I proudly graduate from college with a major in journalism and a minor in business entrepreneurship. With graduation also comes the end of another journey, however, that one being my rise to power at the Daily 49er. This, my friends, is my final email update for the immediate future regarding my articles (although I will likely be writing letters to the editor at times next semester, which I will notify you all about as soon as they are printed).

For this week's Graduation Issue of the Daily 49er, you are treated to two articles by me, one being a DVD review and the other being my farewell opinion column.
Read the DVD review of "National Lampoon's Lost Reality 2" at either the Daily 49er\'s website or at my website .
Read my humdinger of a farewell column at either the Daily 49er\'s website or at my website .

Also, for those of you that are actually interested in watching me graduate, you can watch the graduation commencement ceremony online. If you want to see my graduation ceremony, click here tomorrow (Thursday, May 26, 2005) at 9:00 a.m. and select either the high-speed streaming video feed (for high-speed Internet connections) or the low-speed streaming video feed (for low-speed Internet connections).

In closing, I'd like to thank each and every one of you for reading my articles throughout the past two-and-a-half years and for all of your support. It means a lot to me, and all the responses I got regarding my articles were never ignored. What's next for me, you ask? Well, I'm considering graduate school for sometime in the future and I'm pursuing my career of journalism (both broadcast and print). I thank you all for your continued support and I'll see you all later.

-Gerry Wachovsky-
-California State University, Long Beach graduate-
-05-25-05-

HSIG, you would be an awesome blogger. You should get one.

Double-J - You really think so?

Here are some pictures from the graduation, if anyone is interested in seeing any:


All Hail Pope Wachovsky IX!


Pope Wachovsky, up close and personal.


Notice the Daily 49er sticker on my cap.


Where's Gerry?


Gerry and Marilee, a friend of mine. Notice my "Star Wars" tie that I've had for years.

Awesome my friend. It's been a pleasure reading the articles, especially the opinion pieces. Well done on the big G and cracking pictures I may add. As you promised, keep us updated in the future.

It's a common misconception among non-believers, atheists, and agnostics that "either God is all loving or He doesn't exist." The Bible presents a balanced view of God: all-loving, all-merciful, all-gracious, and all-just. The problem isn't God; rather, the problem is finite minds trying to define the Infinite...which is, impossible. It is possible to know God -- and in a personal way. It is not possible to know God exhaustively and completely. If you could, He would cease to be God. You see contradictions in a God that can be both all-loving (i.e., He loves everyone, saints and sinners) and yet be all-just (i.e., He must punish sin). But both "love" and "justice" must be seen as He defines them, not how you or I do. He so loved the world that He sacrificed His Son, something I couldn't do in a million years (especially for a population of ungrateful degenrates). But that's what the Bible teaches, just as it teaches He exhausted all of His wrath on sin on His Son (His justice); therefore, those who have faith in the Son and His sacrifice, are seen by God as holy as Jesus. What's so difficult to believe about that? Although I don't comprehend exactly how He could sacrifice His own Son, I nevertheless see a perfect balance there of both love (for us) and justice (on sin). Conversely, those who don't pay homage to the Son through faith, are by that very action declaring, "I don't need that. I'll pay for my own sins." God then has no choice but to exercise justice on the unrepentant individual. But let me stress that it's not God who has condemned that individual to eternal torment: the individual consciously made that choice himself by rejecting the only suitable sacrifice (again, as He defines it) for sin. You see, when the smoke clears, it really doesn't matter what you believe, what I believe, what Muslims believe, what Christians believe, etc. What matters is God's terms, who He is, and how He views things.

Having injected my daily (and rare) sermon , let me also add that I have always had a HUGE problem with Christians (not even nut-cases) saying, "God told me thus-and-so." Because I've seen it used to justify everything from finding a spouse to having an affair. If someone says, "God told me..." I always interrupt and ask, "Oh? What's the Scripture reference?" He does speak through Scripture to the spiritually discerning (i.e., believers). But I seriously doubt He cares who specifically I marry (as long as she is a believer, as there are biblical guidelines to that extent). I doubt He's concerned about where I work (as long as it's not some illegal or immoral joint, again, scriptural guidelines). And I doubt He cares who I'm pulling for in the Superbowl. Heck, I know some silly believers who ask God to "tell" them which shoes to wear that day! Like I said, I've got a big problem with it. I do believe God has already spoken, via Scripture and most importantly, through His Son. And yeah, He can "speak" in other subtle ways to alert you of His presence: a gentle breeze, a gorgeous sunset, a miraculous rescue, etc. But does He audibly speak? Only if you're droppin' acid!

Yeah, Snake's a big sinner, and I'd be the first to admit I'm way down the totem pole on holiness and morality. But then again, I'm not trying to tell anyone how to live. However, if you ask about my theology, see above. God doesn't need me (of all people) to defend Him. I just think it's unfair to write Him off by making flippant statements when it's obvious that you've chosen to pick and choose which aspects regarding Christianity you don't like and lumping all believers into the "right-wing, fundamentalist, Spongebob Squarepants" (another despicable action by some believers) categorey. For "heaven's sake," if you're going to attack Christians, at least give a fair and balanced view of what they believe...and who God truly is. What you said would be like my saying, "All atheists are criminals and generally bad people." Not accurate, and not fair.

Congratulations, and good luck in everything you do from this point on. Keep us posted on what you do, I'd love to read more from you. If you're staying in the L.A. area, I hope to hear a lot more about you and all the trouble and controversy you'll stir up! I can't imagine your professional work going unnoticed in a liberal area like this... this'll be fun!

Good luck again, and keep up the good work!

Sure. I'd love to do one myself, heck, maybe even a couple of us from the BB could get a free one from Blogger.com and do something, that might be cool!

Turi Giuliano - Thanks a lot for the comments, but what are "cracking pictures"? Are those pictures that crack you up or something?

Snake - I understand your points but you have to remember that you are not talking to a believer. You keep saying that it's my fault for not accepting god and all that but the truth of the matter is that I don't believe in a supreme being of any kind, so why would I be scared of anything happening to me? This is precisely why I said all the things I said about religion and its believers in my articles. To touch on your other point about knee-jerking extreme religious nuts, you have to remember that I am broadcasting through my writings, and I am talking to a very big audience, so I have to generalize a lot of the time. In other words, I can't single out each and every exception to the rule, which you might very well be. Anyway, I'm glad we can agree on some political issues and I always knew you appreciated my pieces. Thanks!

Letizia B. - I do plan on staying in the Los Angeles area and believe me, you'll know when I make my return! Thanks!

Double-J - Well, I'll look into the whole blogging thing, and I'll let you know if anything happens with that! Thanks man!

Woops, British lingo, I hope you didn't take it to mean that. Used like that it just means good pictures.

It's cool, and you're definitely correct about my being one exception (but I do know of many others). I know how some believers beat folks over the head with a Bible, and it turns my stomach (and turned me off from Christianity for years). Anyway, yeah, I do appreciate your articles, even though I don't agree with all of them. But, then again, I know of no journalist that I agree 100% with anyway.